Open plan living/kitchen with kids?

[relocationconfliction]

We’ve seen a house on Rightmove that has an open plan kitchen/living area, about 8mx4m. Has anyone got a similar set up with children and if so, how do you find it? The kitchen part is all against one wall and then there’s an island.

Is there another room downstairs? If that is your only reception space, it's less than ideal (and even worse if there is no utility) because you can never get away from it all.
If there is a separate snug/living room it can be fabulous.

There is a small room@IceIceSlippyIcebut it’d need to be a bedroom

We lived in a flat like that until DCs were 4 and 1. It was OK, slightly easier in the toddler years as you're never too far when a child needs help and can always keep an eye on them. The living room ended up being a playroom but that wasn't a problem, I am not the kind of person who can't relax if some toys are in eyeshot. That's just life with young kids really.

It's fine as long as you can cope with messy.
I've lived in a house like that with no kids and hated the layout.

I would sooner cut off my own legs than do this.

I personally would love to open up my house- I’ve got two kids and hate being in the kitchen now as I can’t see them or interact with them. Depends on personal preference I think but for me open plan is a lot more social.

Loved like that in a flat with dc1. It was ok with 1 small baby. Then moved to a house with big open plan kitchen and a playroom and a living room.

You need another space even a utility room makes a difference- somewhere to shove stuff and sort stuff without them getting it to. The kitchen gets busy very quickly otherwise. Although I do love them being able to play where I can see them when cooking and it's easy for weaning if you're all in one space.

I have this with a 1 and 2 year old and love it - they can play and I can sort food. However, I installed a massive baby gate part of the living area to keep one space "protected" that I will eventually remove. It does mean you have to be on it with tidying up toys/not having too many though as you can't just shut the door and relax on toy mess.

@BeBreezyPlum😂
@MartinCrieffsHatwith the kitchen and everything in one room?

I guess for the next 2-3 years we could have the other small downstairs room whilst the older two children are young but it’d need to become DD’s bedroom when she’s a teen I think, otherwise she’d have to share with a sister 8 years younger than her.

Honestly, no I wouldn’t do it. Another downstairs room is needed in order to separate up when necessary. E.g when. Kids want to watch a movie but you want to watch something else. When someone wants p n q to do homework etc. everything in one space with no where else to go only a bedroom is a recipe for disaster as the get older

We have this but we have another room which is a playroom which the DC alway play in (and when they are older it will be a second sitting room/teen area) so it works well for us. I’m not sure I’d like it without that space

You’ll get a lot of strong opinions on this. I’d make sure you take the advice from people who have actually experienced open plan living & with children

people who have actually experienced open plan living & with children
It's useful to have a downstairs room with enough space to have small children within your sight at all times IMO.
When you have small children, you will have things like toys around. They're not little for long.

As someone who lived like this and then subsequently had a mental breakdown I can confirm it’s very hard!! I’m so so many ways…

We have open plan living/kitchen ,it only works as we have a separate media room, utility and office, it was just one big room it would be hell with kids.

We love it as it's really social when family and friends are over
However, we did convert the garage to get a playroom, as we needed that separation

We have to put the dishwasher on at night as otherwise it is too noisy, and we have to pause the tv when we boil the kettle or use the extractor fan!

We loved it when DSs were small. But I’m not worried about toys being out and I wasn’t a SAHM so I was not there all day, every day. Quiet space was their bedrooms (which were large enough to play in if they wanted to). We’re semi open plan now but (with late primary/teens DSs) I don’t think I’d want fully open plan as DSs have much stronger ideas now of what they want to do/watch/play.

We knocked down all the internal walls downstairs and started again and opted against this layout. We do have an open plan kitchen/ dining room but the living room is separate. I think it would feel like one big inescapable mess otherwise. We also have a separate utility.

We have a living/dining/kitchen that we use as our main space (DC are 9&4). We also have another large living room. We never use the large living room and spend all our time in the open plan space and it works brilliantly. But ours is 9x6m in an L shape so slightly bigger.

My friend has this set up. While it’s not ideal she could afford 5 bedrooms which was needed for her 4dc when she left her abusive ex. She has a town house so living space is one room. Technically living room is upstairs but that’s now 2 bedrooms. It works because it has to but she did add a wooden bar/room in the garden that her dp built and I think that’s how he copes as he has space. Could that be a longer term add on?

While dc are small, one room is handy but as they get older I have found they want to hang out downstairs but not on top of each other (I’m sure I used to hide in my room as a teen but this generation is different 😆)

We have a big open plan space downstairs but it's a big 6 x 5 m square with the kitchen coming off that. Utility room is separate. DC are 11 and 8.

It's the highlight of our house - it feels big, spacious and light and is sociable for us as a family and when we have people over. Main downside for me is that I don't have anywhere else to sit and hang out downstairs when the kids have friends round.

I don't watch TV during the day so noise from the kitchen doesn't bother me, and apparently doesn't seem to bother DC when we are cooking. Maybe they are just used to it. The kitchen and TV are also as far apart as they can be in our setup.

We are now planning to move anyway. Just for more space overall generally, not specifically because of the open plan, but it will be nice to have two separate downstairs spaces. When we were looking for a new house, we were trying to find something with both elements.

That sounds very small to incorporate a kitchen , dining and living space? We have an open plan kitchen diner with just a sofa and bookcase and ours is about 8m by 10m, and it couldn’t really be any smaller. We also have a decent sized sitting room and a playroom as extra reception rooms. I think you’d really need a separate space downstairs as well, otherwise it will be too cramped and also you won’t ever be able to just shut the door on the children’s toys etc.

Only if you don't hate your kids.